The Hospitality Industry: Defining Quality for a Quality Assurance Programme - A Study of Perceptions

Fundamental to hospitality organisations are services which will satisfy the expectations of customers; however, management perceptions of quality of service often differ from customer perceptions. This paper examines the concepts of service and quality within the framework of the hospitality industry. These are then used to contrast the expectations of customers with the perception of those expectations by the providers of hospitality services. The papergoes on to consider the setting and monitoring of service standards with suggestions for actions that might be taken as part of an ongoing quality assurance programme.